Bonnie Marie Smith currently lives and works in the Hudson Valley of New York State. She grew up on a farm in western New York and later studied art and ceramics at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She enjoys all kinds of art making, but her focus is primarily in figurative ceramics.

"In my work I am exploring the materials, and I am exploring myself," she says. "In life and in art I am drawn to small and intimate things, to the strange, the wounded, the outcast, the mystical and mysterious, the hidden parts and pieces."

Her ceramic figurines explore most often themes of nature, childhood, home, loss, spiritual quest, and the feminine experience. Inspirations for her figures come from everyday life, from dreams, myths and fairy tales, from nature, and from her collection of old and tiny toys. Her creations are deeply personal, and yet the figures seldom depict specific people or events. Rather, they are meant to speak to universal human experience or depict fantastical worlds and interior happenings.

"In my sculptures," she says, " I work intuitively to reveal something of the inner world of each figure."